The phase of flight prior to landing an aircraft is referred to as “approach,” or an approach procedure. Conventionally, each runway or landing area has for it a designated approach procedure, which is a pre-published set of maneuvers that a pilot follows. The designated approach procedure includes a designated glide slope angle for an aircraft to follow in its final approach segment.
In order to increase capacity at airports, advanced approach procedures that increase the published glide slope angle are often desirable. An increased glide slope angle may also provide the benefit of reducing an impact on the environment (noise and emissions) over conventional approach systems. However, the glide slope angle cannot automatically be increased in all cases because conditions may exist around the landing destination or aircraft that would restrict such an increase. Therefore, advanced approach procedures capable of generating, in real time, a safe adaptation to the published glide slope angle and allowing a pilot to interactively choose it are desirable. The following disclosure provides these technological enhancements over systems employing conventional approach procedures, in addition to addressing related issues.